Gebbeth
The hubris of mankind is without limit. Man does not know the dangers he can loose upon the world until he has already brought it. It is not known where the first gebbeth came from, but they have been a curse upon the Shining South ever since. A terrible union of man and spirit, the gebbeth defies the natural order and wreaks terrible destruction wherever it goes. A gebbeth can come into the world naturally, but this is rare. It is believed that most gebbeth come about as the result of the dark arts, experiments conducted by over-eager magicians with no morals and even less sense. A spirit, usually a djinn, is drawn into the world through magic and sealed into the living body of another creature. Theoretically, the gebbeth is bound to follow whatever orders the magician places upon it during its summoning. Practically, however, the gebbeth will find a way to escape its bounds when some situation arises that its orders do not cover. These orders then fall apart, as the union between an autonomous being and a creature as resistant to authority as a djinn is a recipe for disaster. Gebbeth can come in any form, depending upon what body they are sealed into. Unable to escape their physical form, they wander the earth, seeking reprieve. They are extremely dangerous, as there are no obvious indicators that a gebbeth is present. However, those knowledgeable about the dark arts may pick up on the signs: eyes that may flash with a burning orange glow, quiet whispering in unknown tongues at the edges of one's hearing, and a sense of dread and claustrophobia. These signs become stronger as the gebbeth becomes close to feeding. Gebbeth need to feed, or their earthly bodies waste away. In order to stave off the physical body's foreign sense of self-preservation, the gebbeth roams the land in search of prey. To feed, the gebbeth typically isolates its prey and wears down its mental and physical resistances, gradually edging closer until it can attack. When it tries to feed, the gebbeth's physical body disintegrates into a cloud of dark fog that envelops its target and totally consumes it. In doing so, the gebbeth gains its targets skills and memories and can shift into its form at the time of death. As it consumes more and more targets, the gebbeth becomes stronger, tougher, and faster and is able to go longer and longer times without feeding, and the gebbeth gains any of its target's magical abilities. Wizards are thus a priority for gebbeth feeding and should be kept away from gebbeth if at all possible. In addition to these strengths, the gebbeth can shapeshift into any form it has previously consumed. It can also attempt to trigger insanity in its targets by causing the target to hallucinate. The gebbeth is extremely tough and can only be killed in combat by beheading it with a ritually-prepared weapon and burning its body, by drowning it, or by breaking the bonds that seal it in its body. It can also be slain when it tries to consume something, as its body becomes weak during that period. Barring these options, a gebbeth can only be killed by starving it to death, which is typically done by trapping it into a room it cannot break out of or escape from. Category:Creatures